The present invention relates to an improved sport helmet usable by players in any contact sport, but preferably for players in the games of lacrosse and hockey.
Helmets for use by players playing the games of lacrosse and hockey are well known in the prior art, generally. Such helmets typically include a hard shell with internal padding, vent holes, a face guard in the form of a cage, on some helmets a chin guard, sometimes a chin strap, and a variety of other aesthetic and/or functional features.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,772,447 and 6,883,183, both to Morrow et al., teach the details of a sport helmet preferably used as a lacrosse helmet. These patents are related with their underlying applications being a parent application and continuation application.
The Morrow et al. patents teach a hard shell, internal padding, a face guard consisting of a wire cage having peripheral P-shaped connection means, and either a padded chin guard attached at the bottom of the cage or a chin bar attached to the helmet and cage without a pad. Also taught by Morrow et al. are a chin strap, internal padding within the shell, and a plurality of ventilation holes in the shell. Although the Morrow et al. patents demonstrate that each of these features is generally known in the prior art, there is room for improvement with regard to each of these features, particularly concerning the desirability of enhancing performance, both from an aesthetic standpoint and structurally to improve player safety and effectiveness.
The Morrow et al. shell includes basic padding consisting of an inner liner including a crown layer and a lower liner portion. These padding structures are disclosed as constructed of vinyl nitrol, a laminate described as BUCKTEX® or, alternatively, any soft and non-abrasive material having moisture management/wicking characteristics. Such padding in a sport helmet is typical of sport helmets used today. Thus, there is a need for an improved padding for a sport helmet that takes into account anticipation of such impacts and a solution to protect the wearer.
On typical sport helmets such as those disclosed by Morrow et al., the manner of attachment of the face guard or cage to the front of the helmet is through a series of P-shaped clips that are attached to the shell via screws that are screwed into holes in the helmet provided for that purpose. Such clips have a thickness underlying the cage that results in spacing of the cage from the shell on each side to the distance of the inner portion of each clip. As a result, the cage must be made slightly wider than would otherwise be the case, thereby resulting in increased weight and bulkiness for a helmet. A different connection system that would result in reduction of weight and bulkiness would be an improvement for the wearer.
In a further aspect, in a face guard such as that which is shown in the Morrow et al. patents, the P-shaped clips fasten the face guard to the shell, but do nothing to preclude vertical sliding movements of the face guard with respect to the clips. Thus, impacts to the face guard can cause sliding movement of the cage that can hurt the user and/or damage the helmet. If a system were devised to reduce such sliding movements of the cage with respect to the shell, these issues could be resolved.
In a further aspect, prior art sport helmets, particularly those used in lacrosse and hockey, have a chin bar that is typically attached to the shell at two points, one on each side. One example of such a helmet is The Sport Helmets Inc. Cascade CPX helmet which includes a single point of attachment on each side of the shell for the chin bar with additional attachments on the lower portion of the cage. In a further aspect, the shell is made with a smooth surface adjacent the locations of attachment of the chin bar so that the chin bar is mounted in overlying relation to those smooth surfaces with a screw used to attach each side of the chin bar at those locations. In a similar fashion to the description hereinabove concerning the cage, with the chin guard overlying the sides of the shell, the chin bar must be made slightly wider than the shell at those locations to accommodate this mounting. This adds additional weight and bulkiness. Thus, it would be advantageous to devise a chin bar that resolves these issues.
Sport helmets, particularly for the games of lacrosse and hockey, are typically made with a shell molded in a limited number of sizes. The heads of different players are always sized differently, both in shape and circumference. Some helmets have been devised with adjustment means to custom-fit a helmet to a particular player, however, such adjustment means are typically only adjusted at the point of purchase and never adjusted again. The fit of a helmet to a player may change over time based upon many factors including nothing more complex than the length and volume of the player's hair. Thus, the ability to easily change the custom-fit of a helmet by the player would be advantageous in ensuring that the helmet is always comfortable to the player and the player is not conscious of the helmet while playing the game.
It is with the thoughts in mind to devise a sport helmet in which improvements are made with regard to each of these features that the present invention was developed.